Lotta shakin' going on at museum

The USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum has unveiled a new display that shows the location of earthquakes around the world in near real time.

The Museum gets updated information hourly from IRIS, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, and displays it on a global map. The map shows the location and magnitude of earthquakes on various time scales ranging from hours to years. On Friday, for example, the map showed strong earthquakes occurring in Kazakhstan, Italy and Indonesia with the past few days.

Viewed on a longer time scale, the map shows a marked concentration of dots along the lines of Earth's tectonic plates, including the so-called Ring of Fire around the Pacific Rim.

The quake monitor is on the upper level of the Hall of Paleontology adjacent to the door of the main office.